vexilliumfandomcom-20200214-history
Tak culture test
This list may be expandified in time. If you are a Tak... * You believe that every individual is free to mind other living beings, including flora. * You also believe that you are to complain about (but reluctantly follow) rules set by the government. * You easily talk to others if they speak Tak. If they speak Ingallish however you tend to be a bit more reserved as they may be Bowdani spies, bandits or beggars. * Your name can have multiple appearances throughout your life depending of your background, your status, the person to whom you marry as well as your accomplishments in life. You rarely get impatient when you have to explain this to foreigners. * You are a huge fan of either cricket or rugby or both and there is a 61% possibility that you are a player in a local team. If you like cricket, there is a fair chance that you have the ‘power’ to be able to convince someone who has never heard of cricket that it’s the most beautiful sport in the world. Cross country cycling also attracts your attention, partly because you’ll get the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful nature of Tak. Tak understand the attractiveness of ice hockey, but it isn’t played a lot (mostly due to lack of ice rinks). Football, basketball is played but is generally considered to be for wussies. * You half-heartedly think most problems could be solved by means of cooperation, although deep down you think that 30% to 60% of your conversation partners are utter idiots. Despite this, you consider it of extreme importance to be polite and let them have their say, before completely – but diplomatically – burning them to the ground. * You have a strong connection to nature and even when you’re living in the city you try to get out to the countryside as often as possible, whilst having your city residence covered with plants. Having a garden in the city may give you an advantage when applying for jobs; it is not uncommon in that case to invite the potential employer over to your house! Food and drink... * In general you don’t drink alcohol a lot. When you do, you prefer Qyh, which is made of herbs and tastes a bit like Jägermeister or Beerenburg, but less sweet and with a texture that resembles that of (Scotch or Irish) whiskey. You’re not fond of beer at all and although wine is produced in Tak you consider it ‘posh’ or even decadent to drink it more than once a year. * Typical Tak pubs (even in the city) are semi-gardens with wooden roofs that are often only open during the summer. Pubs that are open during winter tend to attract louche guests and drunks. * You are likely to be lactose intolerant, so milk is drunk rarely and hard to get by even in supermarkets. Fruit juice is however very popular and an average household will be able to offer their guests at least ten different flavours. Tea and coffee (without milk of course) are also popular. * The Noon Meal (which you hesitate to call ‘lunch’) is considered the most important meal of the day. In general this means that people work from 7.00 to 11.00, after which they eat, most often in company with close friends (or family, although this is less common, but certainly not with colleagues unless they are your friends). The working day is then resumed at 14.00 or in some cases at 15.00 of the au cloque. * You are not a declared vegetarian, but you rarely eat meat nevertheless. People will consider you weird or even asocial if you eat meat more than four days a week. * Your food is spiced up to a level that foreigners consider masochism. Tak cuisine takes time to get used to! * Fast food can be found in the cities, but is generally cheap and only eaten by the poor. Politics and economics... * You don’t care much for party politics and find politicians in general strange people who are not very connected to daily life or reality as a whole for that matter. Members of parliament are the worst in this respect, and you really have to be convinced to participate in elections because in the end, the result will be messed up by the 30% to 60% you think are idiots (see above). You have more faith in the members of the government as they have to be endorsed by the Druids and there is a distinct possibility that the Druids may perhaps always be right. * You don’t understand the government’s fuss about Tak independence. Tak has been independent for centuries, hasn’t it? * Basically you agree that the government owns all companies and institutions that are in the general interest (energy, public transport, health care, the telephone company, bakeries, …) , but you hate being bothered with the excessive bureaucratic procedures that are necessary (or so the government says) to keep these companies and institutions accessible for everyone. * If you’re in a hurry – and not poor – you can more quickly get cake or pie from the (privately owned) pastry-shop than a loaf of bread from a (state-owned) bakery. Eating cake or pie for breakfast isn’t uncommon at all! * You’d rather spend a year in a hospital than three months unemployed: health care ranges from average to good, whereas the many bureaucratic procedures that ensue the moment you get out of a job may give you a mental affliction. * You exclaim “Damn criminals!” every time there is a power outage, which the government blaims on “criminals” sabotageing the electricity plants, but if you’d think this through well enough you’d come to realise that a criminal organisation existing for the soul purpose of putting people in the dark is rather silly. Your refrigerator has a back-up battery. * You expect public works to be started at least 50 years after they are announced for the first time and to last another 50 years before they are completed. * You trust judges with your live. You would however shoot lawyers yourself and with pleasure if it wasn’t mandatory to have yourself represented by one in a court case and illegal to be armed if you are not a policeman, a soldier, a forrester or a Druid. * You love the military, not only because of their craftedly styled uniforms, but also because they protect the country from Bowdani beggars and criminals who think they own the place. Race, religion and language... * You speak Tak in any case, maybe Ingallish or a Kencari dialect at home. Ingallish and Lendian are learnt at school. * You confess to the Tak nature worshipping and have a lot of trouble imagining what it’s like to believe in a god that cannot be seen, let alone accepting that this abstract being may be responsible for the specific and tangible nature that you know. * You aren’t surprised if two men or two women are behaving as intimately in public as a man and a woman would do. Everyone knows that... * Dates are DD/M/YYY. Like this: 1Ҕ/Ѧ/100, as Tak uses a hexadecimal counting system. In the decimal system this would be 31/10/256 and you don’t have a clue what happened on that date as history education is something the government has been trying to improve for years. * The decimal point is a comma, not a dot. * Unlike in the rest of the world, including the rest of Bowdani, there was no serious civil unrest in Tak in the late 290s and early 300s. * You can get married by the head of the more important family; it is considered good luck if a Druid is present during the ceremony. Getting married is also possible before a representative of the local government, but this course of action is done only if there are no further relatives alive on both sides of the family or if one or both of the marrying persons' families didn’t approve. * You can get married to one person only, but your household can consist of more adults with whom intercourse is not uncommon and accepted as long as no children ensue from this. The two married members of the household are its heads. If another, unmarried member of a household will marry, he or she will leave the first household and create one with his or her new partner, as a household can only contain one married couple. * Foreign films are dubbed in Tak. Television is used to watch films, series, and soap operas. Game shows are rare and unpopular as is televised news; there are newspapers for that! * There’s a great chance that you like to read and have a modest, well kept library in your home. You think that... * Modern Bowdani are corrupt bandits with only an excuse for a country. Their ancestors however used to be proud and better organised, according to most Tak, which is the reason that the Tak were part of their country until 78 AP. What? Until 308 AP? But that’s not even ten years ago; that can’t be right! Are you kidding me? * Caboteniasans are distant and unwelcoming. In your mind you expect the world to end at the Tak-Caboteniasan border. * The people from Lombriguay are open and friendly and probably the saviours of this world. But your opinion about them may be slightly exaggerated due to the fact that Tak’s other neighbours don’t seem very pleasant. * Samuelonia and Angliya are great nations, but this may be indoctrination following the fact that these were the first two nations to recognise the independence of Tak in 309 and 310, which an exited Tak government didn’t cease to mention. Apart from the neighbouring countries, you have a fairly bad grasp of world topography, so you probably have no idea where these countries are located. Longerath you say? Splendid! Space and time... * Making an appointment when you want to pay someone a visit is usual and even considered necessary politeness, even in case of close friends and family, in order to give the receiving party the opportunity to clean up the house. * You show up at the designated time. A margin of 15 to 30 minutes later (more is possible in case of an event with more than five guests) is socially acceptable; coming early is not done. * It is customary to bring a wrapped gift for the host. In case of an ordinary visit, the host leaves the gift unopened and it is expected that 90% of these customary gifts contain – in fact – nothing but air or something unuseful. In case of celebrations (weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, …) the gift may be opened and the given object is supposed to be examined in detail by the host for one minute, during which he or she utters her thanks and comes up with a reason why the given object may be of use. Throwing gifts away – even the unopened ones – within a year is extremely impolite. In certain circumstances it may however be accepted that a gift is passed on to someone else. * Depending of the nature of the event, there is a minimum staying time. It is acceptable to leave e.g. a well visited birthday party after one hour and ten minutes, but not earlier (officially it’s one hour, but leaving immediately after precisly 60 minutes may be interpreted by the host that he or she may have been a bad host and you’ll want to avoid that!). * Tak consider it bad luck to be out and about during the passing of a year. Unlike other countries, Tak is completely dark and quiet on New Year’s Eve. If you are celebrating the New Year with guests, they stay over and inside of the house. Category:Cultural tests Category:Tak